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Zenimax Media Absorbs iD. Megatexture Mods Imminent?

Zenimax Media has apparently caught every other publisher by surprise in acquiring iD Software, placing the legendary developer underneath the same roof as Bethesda according to this press release. It was only four years earlier that Activision had made a quiet bid to acquire the developer or its IPs only to be turned down.

For those of you that have no idea who Zenimax is, you aren’t the first, but they have an impressive roster of who’s who in Hollywood on their Board such as Jerry Bruckheimer and they’ve been Bethesda’s home for nearly more than a decade. They just seem to let their developers do most of the talking.

So does this mean that the next Elder Scrolls will have Hell-borne wickedness oozing out of every megatextured portal? Probably not. Does it mean that John Carmack’s programming wizardry might find its way into projects elsewhere within the Zenimax empire? That’s more likely.
Bethesda may benefit from the more direct collaboration that this particular merger has opened the door to without having to worry about licensing issues, for one thing. It also gives Zenimax Media a great way to break into the FPS space with something a bit more conventional, although their upcoming Rogue Warrior is going to be doing that later in the year.

It also places iD’s upcoming post-apocalypse racer and shooter, Rage, in the weird position of having been contractually promised to EA despite the developer now working for Zenimax Media. It’s probably safe to assume that Doom 4 will be a Zenimax Media release, however, since no publisher was announced for that yet, but we can bet that Todd Hollenshead will let the world in on what is going on there.

But for gamers, it gives us yet another reason to watch what else iD has up their sleeves for the next generation.